Why the kid-glove treatment of the Jets fans who take sport in harassing women? And why the previous wink-and-a-nod treatment of those few women who encourage the taunts?

The crude half-time show at the infamous Gate D spiral ramp of Giants Stadium continued over the weekend. Jets fans have made it a habit to swap of the letters in the tradition "J-E-T-S" chant to encourage women to flash their breasts. And some women comply.

Stadium officials called this behavior unacceptable. And then they appeared to accept it, with a handful of exceptions.

There was beefed-up security, and six men were escorted from the stadium by security officers. They were questioned, "cajoled," warned about the behavior and urged to take the warning seriously.

Not cajoled!!! Oh, the horror!

Two were ejected, and the Jets are researching their tickets to determine ownership. The actual owners of the season tickets will be warned via a letter that any further problem could risk having their tickets revoked, according to New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority president Dennis Robinson.

Beyond that, not much beyond cajoling has taken place. Ejecting two guys from a crowd of 300 is a start, although a shockingly small one.

Even that, however, was too much for some.

"This was the last free thing, and they took it away," The Ledger quotes Jason Prichard, 34, as saying. "It didn't hurt anybody."

Jason, Jason, Jason. You are far too old to think that fantasy is true. It was not free: it came with a price. There are indeed two broad groups of people harmed by this half-time show:

-- The first is children, and by their extension, their parents. A parent should be able to take a child to a public sport with confidence it won't be X-rated. An 8-year-old boy should be able to go to a football game and be wide-eyed at the football, not at something he isn't really ready to see. A 10-year-old girl should be able to go to any event in a government-owned facility and not come away with some bizarre notion that womanhood means compulsory stripping.

Children are entitled to a childhood. Guys like Jason had theirs, and -- news flash -- now it is time for them to act like adults so today's children can be children. Not spectators observing an adult melee of booze and breasts, but children.

-- The second group, of course, is women who would like to attend a football game without exposing their private parts to drunken strangers. That is to say, the majority of women. If such a woman cannot walk through a crowd unmolested by sexual taunts, we have a problem. When it happens in a government-owned, taxpayer-supported facility, we have a big problem.

That not all woman fall into this category is hardly the point. Wherever there are men not behaving like gentlemen, there is usually a woman not behaving like a lady. And vice versa. Flashers should be arrested. That would solve the problem. We know hope springs eternal, but 300 men are not stupid enough to wait an entire half-time for something that isn't going to happen.

The New York Times reports there were about 20 uniformed N.J. State Police and about 30 security guards at Gate D this past weekend. So we had 50 taxpayer-funded employees watching hundreds of people chant obscenities. They did remove two women, Robinson said. Their very presence there was considered "instigating."

(Robinson disputed a later report that said other women were escorted from the gate for their own protection. No woman's safety was ever in jeopardy, he said.)

In other words, for some women Gate D is now effectively off-limits. (Perhaps just women of a certain age and level of attractiveness?) Apparently it is easier to force the women to leave than to get the guys to behave. The Taliban would approve.

If you are under the impression cracking down would mean the Big Evil State was tromping on Good Clean Fun, consider this paragraph from the Ledger coverage:

"Hundreds of men demanded the women show their breasts, only in more vulgar terms. Others, like a 12-year-old boy with a cowlick, leaned over the railing to deride women who would not flash the crowd."

When we have a 12-year-old kid who thinks it is fun to taunt strangers, who thinks it is normal for women to expose themselves, who indeed feels entitled to the point of anger when they don't, we have a problem that left "fun" waaay back in the dust.

So kick out the kid too. And ban the lame-brained dad/uncle/adult who brought him and oversaw this bonding experience. Although use of the word "adult" may be stretching it.